Police in Hull have warned the city's cyclists to be alert following three attacks over the weekend in which riders were assaulted by car passengers. All three attacks involved Vauxhall Astra cars, and in at least two of them, information released by Humberside Police suggests the same vehicle was involved.
Those incidents both took place on Southcoates Lane, one at 7am on Saturday morning, the other at 8.20am on Sunday morning. In both those cases, a male cyclist was grabbed by the passenger of a dark-coloured vehicle, believed to be an old-style Vauxhall Astra, reports This is Hull and East Riding.
The third incident took place at 5.15am on Sunday morning when a woman riding to work on Staveley Road, also located in the east of the city, was pushed off her bicycle by a passenger, also in a Vauxhall Astra.Police are trying to trace a woman dog-walker in the area at the time as well as the driver of a 4x4 who stopped to help the cyclist.
None of the cyclists were seriously injured in any of the three incidents, although police have highlighted that they could each have had much more serious consequences and are increasing traffic patrols in the area in response.
Police have said they are trying to trace two men said to have local accents in connection with the assaults and anyone with information is requested to call 101 quoting log numbers 195 of 10 November 2012 and log numbers 185 and 209 of 11 November 2012.
Still in Hull, a city with particularly high levels of utility cycling dating back to its industrial heyday, last Tuesday evening a cyclist had his nose broken after being assaulted by one of three pedestrians he encountered when riding along a shared use path leading onto Wilmington Bridge, reports the the same news website.
The incidents come at a time when we are noticing more stories about unprovoked assaults on cyclists.
Last week, we reported on an incident in Manchester in which a cyclist was knocked unconscious by an object thrown from a car, while a woman in Essex riding with her husband and son was hit by a bottle thrown by a passenger in a vehicle.
In August, a South Yorkshire cyclist suffered multiple injuries when he was pushed off his bike by occupants of a Vauxhall Corsa while taking part in a club run. Dave Scargill, aged 58, spent two weeks in hospital as a result of injuries including a broken collarbone.
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8 comments
Blame the media. Too many times we see anti-cyclist articles from columnists that would be classed as hate crimes if they were directed at any other group. It's all very well saying they just do it to sell papers but papers influence people.
When someone like the fat cook James Martin can write in the national press that he'd like to kill every last cyclist we can hardly be surprised if some morons are swayed enough to attack people on bikes.
Once again I call upon our Government to neuter the chav scum that plague our nation.
It seems that the Astra is "la voiture de choix" of the chav, so we should put this down to common-or-garden thuggery, rather than any general cyclist-motorist tension.
I cycle in all of those areas but I have a camera, so if he tries the same stunt with me he will get reported like this idiot did.
http://www.swldxer.co.uk/noentry.wmv
makes you wonder what goes through their tiny little
pea brains at the time !!!!
Strung-up and suffer public humiliation.
Some of these stories beggar belief. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM? Cannot believe that people could stoop so low.
What is wrong with people! There's no excuse! I hope the perpetrators are caught and strung up!
That's the problem, isn't it? The courts, dominated as they are by non-cyclists, are likely to agree with the perps it was all a bit of a laugh and let them off with a slap on the wrist.